Thank you for your report!
We have received your report and it is currently under investigation by a forum moderator.
Top Tips
Welcome to the forum.
Here you can discuss all things art with like-minded artists, join regular painting challenges, ask questions, buy and sell art materials and much more.
Make sure you sign in or register to join the discussions.
Hang on Studio Wall
This is a Studio member-only feature!
Join our Studio membership and save your favourite Painters Online content, from gallery artwork to step-by-step guides, to your own online mood boards. Create your go-to place for inspiration and learning. Plus, members can also enjoy a range of exciting features including monthly art videos and a digital magazine library.
If you are already a Studio member, simply login to your account.
Not a Studio member? Why not try our free 30-day trial - no commitment, no credit card required
Message
Posted
He/she got Elite from your (well-merited!) description/classification.
Soft edges - I imagine you're using the paint rather stiffly; mix it with medium, Linseed oil + Turps/white/spirit/sansodor, or with Liquin - or any number of other vehicles. Use a touch of Titanium White, which is heavy in oil. Try oil-painter's sable brushes (with which you'll HAVE to use a medium). Ensure the background into which you paint the edges is either still wet, or (in my opinion, better) tacky, and not completely dry. Rub the edges with your finger, hard or very lightly depending on the effect you want (wash your hands immediately if you're using a lead-based white, like Flake or Cremnitz - and be a bit careful with the cadmiums: they won't kill you, but it's better not to let them get into the bloodstream all the same).
Some people actually find hard edges difficult to achieve in oil, so however you're doing it, don't forget the technique: you might need it later!
Posted
Brushes for acrylics work fine with oils, and Pro Arte are a good make. I prefer traditional hog-hair brushes, but then I was brought up with them. I have a few red sables, very useful for fine or delicate work, and one of Rosemary & Co's Ivory brushes (I'll get more, when the wallet runs to it). My riggers are mostly synthetics for acrylic - Reflex, again from Rosemary & Co; but use whatever you're comfortable with - have a go with a painting knife one day: there's a wonderful sense of freedom when you use the knife with oils; it is a bit expensive, but on the other hand you very rarely waste any paint.
I see you lay in the acrylic first and then work oil over it; you could get a more workable surface if you glazed a thin coat of transparent oil over the acrylic; I used to do the same as you, but nowadays normally do my underpainting in thin oil instead; it's all a matter of preference: some will say that it's a sounder method to work with oil throughout, but I think laying oil on acrylic is usually safe enough, especially on a rigid surface. Our technical expert, though, is Martin Kinnear, who runs the Norfolk Painting School - I've probably been painting longer than he has, but he's really studied the nuts and bolts of painting, so - despite my advanced age! - I defer to him in most things..... :-D
Posted
No, don't use your best watercolour sables for oil - it would ruin them, and you'd have to use very fluid oil with them anyway: oil is too heavy for the best sables. The kind of sable I'm talking about is the type you'll find on long-handled brushes, marketed for oil painters. There are some good ones in the Jackson's catalogue.
By thin oil, I meant glaze a coat of very thin oil paint over the acrylic - mixed with a glazing medium; black is actually a tricky colour in oil to use over black acrylic, or I remember I found it so: maybe a coat of deep blue would work better.... Trouble is, having a painting which is half acrylic and half oil is a touch unorthodox, and it's why you're finding it hard to get soft edges. If I were tutoring you, I'd wean you off this method and get you to lay in the entire picture in oil .... but each to their own.
Do I sell, you ask - well I did; the trouble is that the market collapsed; and most professional artists get by with a combination of painting, teaching, doing demos to art groups, travelling up and down the country in the process, flogging their own "special" brushes, and dvd's, and of course putting on exhibitions of their work. Well, I'm not physically up to a lot of that: but I need to relaunch my career! I've got lazy, as well.... so the old firm is in what I like to think of as temporary suspension....
If you asked anything which I've missed, I'll come back for another crack at it.
Posted
Alizarin and cobalt would probably work better for skin tones; particularly for elderly skin; lemon is quite a weak colour though - I think I'd probably go for yellow ochre or raw sienna, although I've seen perfectly acceptable portraits painted in cadmium yellow, cadmium red, with a venetian red/viridian mix in the shadows .... a lot depends on lighting, age of the subject, plus a good bit of luck - there's no right mix for flesh. Take a look at some of Rodrigo Costa's portraits on this site; the important thing is tone, the balance of light and dark. Children's skin presents a whole set of new problems - I'd use brighter colours there.
Poorly - well, I'm full of arthritis, having broken my back over 30 years ago. Slows me down a lot. And my memory obviously isn't very good either, because I've forgotten if you asked anything else, and it's not easy to check back on the last posting when you reply on this website.....
Posted
Oh ar .... yes; backgrounds .... they go in first, although there's often a lot of working into them later (which actually helps with soft edges) and that's where an oil background comes into its own; acrylic is completely unresponsive once laid down, unless you use the "interactive" acrylics - and you couldn't use those in conjunction with oil.
Didn't go to art school, no - sort of half regret that and half not.... it took me a very long time to learn what I should probably have been able to pick up quickly if I'd been properly taught; on the other hand, I had other interests at the time; was fed up with education generally and wanted to move into the world and leave it behind; and the mixed experiences of some who did go suggest to me that maybe it would have put me off art for life. But who knows..... no use crying over spilt turpentine...... :D
Posted
Keep writing Robert - I'm learning some good stuff here!
I've just come back from Capri/Sorento, and having visited the art galleries there, I'm over come by the warmth and depth of the italian painters - all in oils. So I have decided to take the plunge and give oils a shot, but where to start???
Posted
Tony - just buy some oil paint and get stuck in. There are so many different techniques; if you want the soft, warm tones of the Italian painters, you'll go one way (with glazing, fluid paint, layer upon layer of colour and tone); if you want the immediacy of the Impressionists, you'll go another, with pure, strong colour, directly applied....
Oil offers so much - it does help if you can find a teacher, but do remember to find one who teaches the method you want to employ, or at least knows how to: the tutors I hate are those who have one method of painting and seek to make their students follow it: I really must write the e-book I've been threatening to write - I'd like to offer a variety of approaches without claiming one was "right" ... if only I wasn't so b . lazy, I'd get on with it.............. :$
Posted
I posted a comment on one of the other threads about using wallpaper scissors to cut up sheets of watercolour paper and also for cutting bubble wrap for paintings.
Having posted this it came to me that I have another idea which others might find helpful. Some time ago I bought a tiny little spray bottle of lens cleaner from Specsavers at quite a cost for the amount you get.
I recently visited a Poundsaver type shop and came across a bottle of LCD and plasma screen cleaner (alcohol and ammonia free) which was a fraction of the cost for five times the quantity.I used it to clean my monitor and then thought why not try it on my glasses and it worked a treat. I have since used it on all manner of things including mirrors and glass doors in the kitchen.Then when framing a painting I decided to try it out to clean the glass before sealing it and hey presto - I now have a bottle permanently in the studio.
I have found the secret, by the way, is to spray it on a lint free cloth and not the object being cleaned - you use very little and there are no streaks etc.
I thought it might be useful if anyone else has any tips they would care to pass on.